SpendBrite.com – Budgeting Made Easy

byCharlesonApril 21, 2011

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What it does:spendbrite is an easy way to simplify your spending. Web and mobile based budgeting tools make it easy to keep track of your spending, wherever you are. A simple, customizablecash envelope based budgeting system puts you in control of your spending and savings goals and helps you to keep track common expenses.

How it beats the competition:Cash Envelope Budgeting System:
Unlike other online personal budgeting sites, spendbrite is designed around a cash envelope budgeting system. You define the categories you plan to budget for and allocated money from your paycheck to be used for purchases in those categories. For example, if after your fixed expenses (mortgage, car payment, etc) you have a $1,000 remaining for discretionary spending, you take that $1,000 and divide it up into categories like groceries, eating out, etc. Then you try to only spend what you’ve allocated to each category, removing funds from that category as you spend. If you’re not budgeting against your net income (what’s left in your pocket) then your going to have a hard time saving.

Customizable:
spendbrite let’s you create custom budget categories, sections, and savings goals that make sense to you. You can create as few or as many as you need and re-order them so that they work with your life. You can also create new categories as they come up.

Savings Goals:
Having long term financial goals is a great way to help mange your monthly spending. If you are faced with a decision of buying a new pair of jeans (that you don’t really need) or putting some money away for that new car or retirement it can help curb those instant gratification habits that can get people into trouble.

spendbrite is designed to provide easy visibility into your available (un-spent) money, progress towards your savings goals and details on where your money is going. Each month you can ‘spend’ some or all of your monthly savings towards your savings goals. This creates a clear connection between your day-to-day spending decisions and your long term financial goals.

Keeping it simple:
spendbrite was designed to do one thing; offer a simple and easy to use tool that helps to organize your savings goals and plan and track your budget. Using an uncomplicated dashboard style interface helps users organize, visualize and manage spending. It’s easy to see where you are in your budget at any time.

Successful personal budgeting shouldn’t be complicated. There are some great alternative budgeting tools in the market, but most of them are too complex or advanced for most people to navigate. If it’s too robust, budgeting becomes an overly complex chore. We developed spendbrite because we wanted an easier way to track our spending, and we wanted it to be easy enough to use so that we’d actually use it…and we do, every day.

Enforce responsibility:
There are a lot of budgeting tools out there that try to systematically manage your spending for you. “Just put in your bank account information, tell us about your budget and goals, and we’ll take care of it”. There isn’t any accountability in this type of system.

The reality is that managing your spending and the decisions to purchase is up to you. No automated system is going to be able to help you save if your not committed. Because spendbrite is so simple to use it makes being accountable less painful. You have to enter your spending and see your balance every time you spend. In my opinion, the only way to successfully manage a budget is to use it, everyday. This forces you to think about, record, and track all of your expenditures. Any budget, in fact any tool, is only as good as how you use it.